Celebration of The Liturgies For The Fifth Sunday of Lent - April 3^rd, 2022

Fifth Sunday of Lent – Third Scrutiny – April 3rd, 2022

 

The story of Jesus raising his friend Lazarus from the dead is probably the most striking example of our Lord’s power over death apart from the resurrection narratives contained within all four Gospels in the New Testament. Even though this story really happened as we read it, it is more about what happens to all of us as we experience the process of conversion. For anyone of us that takes our faith seriously knows that the conversion process is a series of steps moving us ever so closer to our Lord. However, our humanness at times gets in the way of that process taking us away from Jesus due to our sinful actions which we need to be healed of through the sacraments of forgiveness. Those sins of ours that we commit are like deaths that we experience and need to be resuscitated from by Jesus. Placing our complete trust in our Lord that he can raise us up, and forgive us, from any infraction that we might commit is always a pivotal step in the conversion process for any intentional disciple. That is exactly what the author of the story of Lazarus is all about; that Jesus is the Lord of both the living and the dead who desperately wants to bring us back to life from the death of our spiritual and/or physical death.

 

Before delving into the miraculous act itself conducted by Jesus, we need to look at the context in which this rich story is written by Saint John. During the public ministry of Jesus, his last three to four years of life, he was very close to two distinctly different families who cared for his physical and spiritual needs. These friends of Jesus provided him a place to rest away from the demanding crowds where he could relax in the presence of close and dear friends without having to do a thing but just “be”. The first of those families consisted of Peter’s household, located up in the northern part of Israel in the Galilean area near Nazareth. That family would have consisted of Simon Peter, his wife, his mother-in-law, any possible children he might have had, and any other close relatives of that apostle whom Jesus chose to lead the Church in its earliest days of infancy. The other family that he was very close to was that of Lazarus who lived in a town called Bethany located outside of Jerusalem in Judea in the east-central part of the country. Lazarus’ family consisted of himself and his sisters Martha and Mary. It is believed by most biblical scholars that those two sisters of Lazarus’ were most likely not married which is why they were living with their brother. It is to this family that Jesus would perform the act of bringing someone back from the dead; a foreshadowing of his own resurrection to come. This event is the last of the seven signs, miracles, found in the Gospel of John prior to Jesus’ paschal event.

 

In the historical time in which this story took place, it was very difficult for women to live on their own. The cultural norm of that day was that women would be associated with a male figure for survival in that society. A woman would stay with her father’s family until marriage; if she had married and her husband died then she would live with her son; if she did not have any sons then she would go and live with a brother, uncle, or male cousin for survival. That is why in this story we see Martha and Mary living with their brother Lazarus. For if those two women were never married and their father had died, or one or both had been married and now their husbands and father were gone and had no sons to live with, then it would have been necessary for them to live with their brother when all other male figures in their family had passed away. There is credible evidence of this social condition being played out in the story itself when we see Martha’s concern with Jesus’ delay in going to his dying friend’s bedside when he heard the news that Lazarus was very ill and close to death. We know that Jesus waited four days to go to Lazarus’ side to cure him, but by then he was already dead. Once Jesus arrived on the scene, Martha chided him for taking so long in coming to her brother’s side for she goes on to say; “If you had been here, my brother would not have died”. Martha shows her concern, really her anxiety, over the loss of her brother and the fact that she and her sister Mary would be without any support in that culture once her brother was gone.

 

In this Gospel account regarding Lazarus being raised from the dead, we see Jesus weeping over the news he had received of the death of his very close friend, who had opened his heart and home to our Lord during his public ministry while working in the Judean area. Those who were near Jesus at this time were so moved by his response to the news of the death of his friend, that they remarked, “see how much he loved him”. We all tend to forget at times that Jesus was a very real human being just like us while being at the same time the Son of God. Thus, in his human form, Jesus experienced everything that we do except for that of sin. That means Jesus experienced the entire range of human emotions which makes it very natural for our Lord to reveal his deep sorrow for the loss of his close friend, Lazarus.

 

Biblical scholars believe that Jesus’ long wait to go and be at the side of his close friend was all a part of God’s plan for His son’s life as he approached his own death. Jesus was destined to perform that unbelievable miracle that would give glory to God and prove to his disciples that he was the Lord of both the living and the dead.

 

When Jesus finally arrives at the home of Lazarus in Bethany, he tells Martha that her brother will rise, allowing her to profess her belief in the resurrection on the last day. When Jesus states that he is the resurrection and the life, Martha again professes her belief in Jesus. Martha’s faith in Jesus does not require that he perform miraculous deeds, whereas many of the people who had come to be with Martha and Mary believed in Jesus only after they had seen the great miracle he had performed.

 

The very miraculous act that Jesus performs on Lazarus would today most likely be classified by the medical community as a resuscitation of the man’s life and NOT a resurrection from the dead. Being in the tomb for four days Lazarus’ body would have certainly been quite decomposed. Jesus is not concerned with that for he orders the stone on the front of the grave to be removed. Someone, most likely Mary, says that there will be quite a stench once the grave is opened up. That statement of Lazarus’ sister validates that her brother’s body has been dead for a number of days and is rotting in his grave. This part of the story is prefiguring Jesus’ own death and coming back to life; a pure and very real bodily resurrection from the dead. Jesus’ ability to bring someone back from the dead like his very good friend, as well as his own dead body once it is laid to rest in a tomb, shows his complete sovereignty over all the laws and forces of nature, including death itself.

 

As Jesus approaches the tomb of Lazarus to perform the great miracle of bringing him back from the dead he weeps over the loss of his dear friend. One of the onlookers says, “see how much he loved him”. That very real human emotion that he exhibited at the site of Lazarus’ grave revealed how human Jesus really was. From there he would compose himself, and then offer a prayer to his Father before issuing the command for Lazarus to come out. He would pray the following: “Thank you Father for hearing me. I know that you always hear me. But because of the crowd, I perform this act for your glory and not my own. So, that, those who witness it, will come to believe that you have sent me.” Jesus would then go on and issue the command for Lazarus to come back to life by saying in a loud voice; “Lazarus, come out” and he immediately walked out of his grave all tied up in burial cloths. Jesus then said to the crowd, untie him and let him go. This text of the story shows the reader in a dramatic way both the human and divine natures of Jesus, the Christ, as he weeps at the death of his friend and then brings him back to life again.

 

As Bishop Robert Barron states so eloquently, “everything matters” concerning every detail found in all the stories contained in the Bible. When we see Lazarus come out of his tomb all tied up everyone should immediately recognize that picture to be a metaphor for sin; original or personal. No matter what our sin might be, it ties us up into knots which we cannot be freed of until we hear the words of Jesus say “untie him”.

 

This story is very poignant at this time of the liturgical year as Lent winds down and the sacred Triduum liturgies, Paschal feast, take place. Catholic Christians all over the world are about to celebrate the great mysteries of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. As in every single Biblical story every detail matters. The death and resuscitation of Lazarus does not just have meaning for his family but for ours as well. This entire story is a metaphor for the spiritual life. For when we sin, no matter how small or great the act might be, is considered a death. And the very act of being forgiven, either by the Church sacramentally, or by the one an individual has grievously offended, is considered a life-giving act of the graces of resurrection from our God.

 

As we are about to celebrate the great act of our redemption by our Lord, Jesus Christ, let us give thanks to God that once we were dead due to our sins, but now are alive again through the life-giving waters of our baptism. Alleluia.

 

Shalom!

 

 

*Sources used for this piece: “At Home With The Word for 2022;” Published by Liturgy Training Publications; Chicago, Illinois 

 

Written by Bob Sugrue